We childish CC atheists have a question

[got tonkaed]

id agree to an extent with your second paragraph. I do believe that all religion, though we focus on the main ones because they draw the biggest numbers, are heavily attached to time and place. For whatever reason, more mainstream religion is tending to fade in Europe and to some extent in North America, imho because some of the more moderate stances dont really have a niche in contemporary society in those places. The Christian Church is growing very rapidly in some areas and denominations which are struggling in some areas, still have quite a hold on other long term regions of the globe.

All culture has to be able to respond and shape the changing timeperiods and milleus that it finds itself apart of. For whatever reason, some portions of Christianity arent doing that as effectively as others right now. That probably wont stay that way forever, but it will likely be the culture, not the religion that cause the change to something that is a little more moderate.

[jonesthecurl]

j/k. I'm aware of the thing with singing vs religiosity (thx MeDeFe) and in no way mean to imply that they are always directly linked. Our glorious leader Pope Benedict does not seem much a singer himself. However, when you combine the lack of attention and interest with the fact that 1/4 of the congregation arrives late, blushes as they sit in back, and books it outta there after the eucharist, I think it can be safely said that our local Church is losing some steam.

I sometimes like to listen to medieval devotional music (plainsong, etc -but not just monks - go listen to "Anonymous Four" for instance). The thing that particularly appeals to me (though I'm not a Christian, as some of you'll have gathered) is that this is not meant for human ears, and (notionally) the quality of the singing or even of the music is irrelevant - it is meant for God's ear, and it is the devotion not the talent that matters. [Of course, having said that, I'm not God and when I listen I'd like nice voices and a good tune]

[CoffeeCream]

id agree to an extent with your second paragraph.

If I promised to never listen to Rick Astley again would you agree all the way?

[got tonkaed]

id agree to an extent with your second paragraph.

If I promised to never listen to Rick Astley again would you agree all the way?

that would just make me disagree with everything you ever write in the future...im a guy who clicks knowing its a rickroll. Mostly its just some of the words you chose, but its probably hard to actually right a paragraph that i completely could stand behind. I certainly cant do it, and i write loads of words all the time.

[tzor]

And I must say you look spiffy with the Knights of Columbus hat

And I like the hat on your icon as well ... it's also spiffy even if it isn't you per se wearing it.

[tzor]

The amazing thing to me is that Protestants & Catholics, who used to be at each others' throats so to speak, are now almost forced to band together due to the hostility shown toward the Christian worldview.

I think has to do with the fact that time can make people forget. On the Catholic side only a handful of Catholics might even be aware that in the 18th century in New York and New England Roman Catholic priests were prohibited and it was a hanging offense if any of them were caught preaching to the Native Americans. They probably don't even recall any of the more extreeme anti-Papist rhetoric that was common in the day including from government itself.

On the Protestant side only a few denominations (such as some Southern Baptist) will refrain from joining with Roman Catholics in the name of "ecumenical" dialogue / prayer. In fact changes in the Roman Catholic Church actually creep into various Protestant denominations. A good example of this was the liturgical calendar reform. The idea that every church should have a similiar set of readings for a given day was actually adopted by some of the denominations based on the reforms of the Roman Catholic reforms of the 20th century.

Given this tendency there is greater cooperation to banding together to face common threats. But in some ways the cooperation came first before the common threats.